City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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In the inaugural year of the Charleston Classic back in 2008, Clemson downed Temple to earn the event’s first title.

Nine years later, the Owls finally got some revenge.

Behind a balanced offensive effort that saw five players reach double figures, Temple kept its unbeaten start to the season rolling with a 67-60 win over Clemson to capture the 2017 Charleston Classic on Sunday evening.

Temple junior Shizz Alston Jr., the team’s leading scorer through its first two games (20.5 ppg), paced his team with 14 points against the Tigers, including a crucial triple with 2:37 left to give Temple a 10-point lead to begin the stretch run.

As he’s gotten all tournament, Alston had plenty of help. Senior guard Josh Brown broke double figures for the first time this season with 13 points, including three second-half triples. Senior Obi Enechionyia and sophomore Alani Moore II had 12 points apiece, while sophomore Quinton Rose had 10 points and 11 rebounds but went 4-for-15 from the floor.

That balance was a welcome change from a first two games that saw Alston, Rose and Enechionyia all average at least 17.0 ppg but nobody else on the team average more than Moore’s 6.5 ppg.

Though the Owls had a six-day delay to start their season -- Temple’s first game came against Old Dominion on Thursday, in the event’s opening around -- they certainly didn’t play like it over the course of three games.

To get to the championship game, the Owls first handled the Monarchs by 11 before beating Auburn by 14 in Friday’s semifinals.

Temple led from the midpoint of the first half onwards, expanding the advantage to as many as 14 just seven minutes into the second half.

But it wasn’t over until the final minute, after Fran Dunphy’s Owls missed all but one of their final 10 shots from the floor. Clemson clambered back to within four points in the final 30 seconds but got no closer, as Temple hit all but one of its eight foul shots in the last 35 seconds to seal the win.

The Owls shot 23-of-62 (37.1 percent) overall and 10-for-28 (35.7 percent) from 3-point range, but made 11-of-13 (84.6 percent) from the foul line. Clemson was slightly better overall (23-of-55, 41.8 percent) but worse from 3-point range (7-of-26, 26.9 percent) and the foul line (7-of-9, 77.8 percent. The teams were even on the boards at 37 apiece, but Temple turned 18 turnovers into 25 points while Clemson turned 11 Temple turnovers into just seven points.

Coming off two games against Power 5 opponents, Temple’s schedule won’t get any easier as the Owls come back north. After a week off, Temple will have its first Big 5 matchup at La Salle next Sunday, before taking on South Carolina at Madison Square Garden in an Under Armour event on Nov. 30.

But this is a team that has serious NCAA dreams, led by the impressive backcourt of Alston, Rose, Brown and Moore, a sharpshooting big in Enechionyia and several other role players who know their jobs. Through three games, they’re on the right track.